Moms Online Business Coach

I recently was asked to speak at a Small Business Technology Toolbox Teleseminar and present my favorite online tool. Just one I asked?

Since I work in a virtual world, I’m called “Gadget Girl” at home because I always have something electronic on me that connects me to all of my “tools” of the trade.

To start my brainstorm of what tool I wanted to cover I created a two page list of all the programs I use. Out of that list I narrowed it down to what I use every day.

My daily staple tools include…

Central Desktop There are several project management tools available online and this is third one I tried and I really like it. It allows you to create a “workspace” for every project and build in your tasks, milestones, add documents, create a wiki and get email updates. You choose who has access to what workspace, a great benefit when you are working with various outsourcers or virtual assistants. The best part for most? There is no “techy” skills needed to set it all up!

Skype- I use both voice and video for Skype but 99% of the time it’s the chat function. We start threads for various projects and it’s a great record to keep everyone privvy to what is going on and ask questions and get immediate responses. It’s also easier to scroll through a Skype thread to find something then trying to search through your inbox for various emails. The only wish I had was that you could actually do a search within the threads, that would save me some time.

Blackberry- I’m a Blackberry user and I do like having all my email accounts, the web and easy texting at my fingertips…. I’m still considering jumping to the Android…

Ipod Touch- I just got my Ipod Touch as a Christmas present and honestly, I had never wanted one, now I can’t imagine not having it! Surprising enough I can’t work with music on but I take my Ipod Touch with me and listen to mp3s or videos of products I need to review on the go (like during the kids soccer practice). I also heavily depend on the notes feature and love my apps for Skype and MindJet. I can’t wait to get an IPad now

Mindmanager- I love mindmaps and this is an expensive tool but is worth it’s weight in gold!

OpenOffice- You heard me right, I use the free OpenOffice instead of MicrosoftOffice for my docs, spreadsheet and presentations.

Internet- I clump everything I do into this one category since all my blogs, social networks like Twitter and Facebook, ebook and affiliate management program are all web based and I can do 99% of what I need to do with them via a simple internet connection.

Google Tools – I love my Google Tools! Everything from Analytics and Google Alerts, to the Website Optimizer and Google Reader.. I use so many Google tools that I need to create a separate blog post on just that!

I’m still not sure what I will cover for the Small Business Technology Toolbox Teleseminar, there are just so many great tools on my list!

To Your Success,